Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The 8 Great Debates of Bible Prophecy by Ron Rhodes

Rhodes
says he has written this book so readers can better understand
various viewpoints on the end days. He has chosen to cover eight
major areas of debate. He does honestly tell us that he will give his
own personal position and defend that position.

It
is important for readers to know that Rhodes writes this book from
his own confirmed belief of pre-tribulational dispensationalism. When
he presents interpretations not in line with his own, he is very
critical. When he presents his own interpretation, he does not
include its shortcomings. As one who does not believe Rhodes is
correct in his interpretations, I found this book very biased and not
an objective presentation by any means.

He
begins with the topic of allegorical verses literal interpretation of
prophetic Scripture. He advocate a literal interpretation.
“Remember,” he writes, “that the prophecies that have already
been fulfilled in Scripture...have been fulfilled literally.” In
writing this, he ignores Jesus' words that John the Baptist was the
promised Elijah (Matt. 11:14). Yet in John 1:21, John says he is not
Elijah. Does this mean there is, in some sense, a non-literal
fulfillment of a prophecy? Rhodes does not address this issue. He
does say that we must still recognize figures of speech and admits
that it is sometimes hard to determine when a passage should be taken
literally or in its literary meaning. Nonetheless, he argues that we
should expect prophecies of the end times to be fulfilled literally.
His conclusion on that first debate is the foundation for the rest of
this book and sets the stage for his defense of his own viewpoint.

His
next debate topic covers covenant theology and dispensationalism. He
ignores or explains away passages in Galatians such as 3:29 saying
that believers are now the heirs to the promises of Abraham, and the
latter half of 3:28 where Paul argues that we are all one, and 3:16
where Paul argues the promise to Abraham was actually to Abraham and
his seed, Jesus. He ignores the “literal” interpretation of these
Galatians passages and instead quotes another author. “Those joined
to Christ by faith become spiritual descendants of Abraham and
beneficiaries of some of God's promises to him.” That is certainly
not taking the passage literally, but rather spiritualizing it and
adding the word “some” to make it agreeable to the dispensational
viewpoint.

He
goes on to explore other topics, such as whether America is in
prophecy, the invasion predicted by Ezekiel, view of the rapture (he
ignores the view that there is no secret rapture), interpretations of
Revelation and Daniel, Babylon, the 144,000, the two witnesses, the
Antichrist and the “restrainer,” the mark of the beast, views on
the millennium, and setting dates.

Readers
of books on prophecy may not find much new here. If you have read no
books on prophecy or are unfamiliar with terms like preterist,
amillennial, or futurist, you will find out what they mean. I did
find his section on the possibility of the Antichrist being the
Muslim Mahdi informative and interesting. Otherwise this book is a
clear defense of a pre-trib rapture and dispensationalism and is by
no means an objective look at other viewpoints.

If
you believe in a secret rapture before the tribulation, you'll love
this book. If you hold any other view of the end times, you may find
the book very biased and frustrating, as I did. Rhodes does remind
his readers that we should not divide over views of the last days nor make them tests for orthodoxy or fellowship.

Ron
Rhodes is president of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries. He
is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and teaches there and at
several other seminaries. Find out more at http://www.ronrhodes.org/.

Harvest House, 288 pages.

I
received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher for
the purpose of an independent and honest review.

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I am a retired Christian bookstore owner of 33 years. I still love books and read as many as I can, blogging my reviews. I have also taken up photography and sell photos of Whidbey Island and nearby landscapes.